The title of this post is pretty clear about what is going on for me, Lisa. Also, if you’ve been following our Instagram, you know I am in Thailand and Will is still in the States. So what exactly are we doing? Are we separated? Getting divorced? No. Not at all.
As the primary instigator of a lot of our travel, I was still itching to go to more places this year. And Will was feeling maybe a little tired. Like he needed more days at home. So we started talking about a solo adventure I could go on. And I started looking for a way to pay for it. Or for it to pay for itself. I knew I wanted to travel short term, no jobs with a one-year contract. I also have experience teaching. The original idea was a semester teaching English in Spain. But after applying late it seemed to be already filled up. I was offered a chance to go to Thailand for a semester of teaching, and honestly, I was on the fence. The semester was longer, Nov to the end of March. It’s a long time t be away from family.
Will and I talked it over a lot. In the end, we agreed that this was the best time to do it, health, finance, & job-wise. Also, the kids were all doing adult life and didn’t need me urgently to help out. So, despite being very nervous, I signed up to go.
I arrived at the end of October and honestly, it was a whirlwind. I was exhausted from 30 hours of travel, and a 5-day orientation program started the very next day. I was feeling a little insecure about my age, all of the other teachers were in their twenties- I was thinking what am I really doing here? Was 5 months in Thailand really a good idea?
But there I was, in a sea of 100 20-something-year-olds with mostly no teaching experience. Not that there is anything wrong. They are all accomplished graduates off on their adventures. But I was just in such a different place from them. And every day I got up, I could choose to be friendly and try new things or stay mostly in my hotel room and stress about how hard it was. I wanted to try and make the most of it, but I also wanted to make the most on my own terms. I made reservations at a restaurant that included a 40-minute boat ride on the river at night. I tried to be friendly with the kids and embrace the activities. I declined to go out bar hopping. I was not in the large group chat. But I really had a good time. And then it was time to head to my school in my small town outside of Chiang Mai.
I have an intention to start making Vlogs, but honestly, so much happened in the last 2 weeks, it was hard to be organized in picking up the camera. Hopefully, I’ll get back to it. And Will is coming to see me soon. Not soon enough, but soon.